One of the major challenges with the FT86, is the ability to extract heat out of the engine bay. While a stock car that is street driven doesn't have any problems staying within normal operating temperatures, cars that are Forced Induction, or are driven hard on the track often have overheating issues.
Another occurrence the more spirited drivers may have noticed, is that the stock hood "flaps" at higher speeds. There is a lot of air trapped under the hood, and to escape, the air wobbles the stock hood, escaping out the side. This produces a few undesirable effects: extra drag, front end lift, and a general feeling of uneasyness about the hood staying in place.
CSG is proud to introduce the
TrackSpec Motorsports Hood Louver/Heat Extractor Vents for the FRS/BRZ/GT86.
A major design hurdle was finding a proper model of the FRS/BRZ/GT86 to perform CFD analysis to determine the effectiveness of the hood. Such analysis is often performed, but CSG and TrackSpec discovered that all of the commonly available models had some major flaws: they all assume a flat underbody, and they do not model inside the engine bay at all! With such a flawed model, the analysis would also be heavily flawed, so we set about seeking to make our own model. Unfortunately, with the budget we have, it was impossible to laser scan such a complex shape (the underbody, and more importantly, the engine bay) to get the level of accuracy we sought.
This led us to use the flawed models, with some modifications, to attempt to simulate airflow through the engine bay. This data, being flawed, was taken with a grain of salt, and was used only to try different shapes, angles, and sizes of vents, which would ultimately be verified with real world testing. Due to the complexity of the actual car, real world testing would be the only feasible way to get accurate measurements (we don't have the budget for windtunnel testing... sorry!).
The end result of this testing, is the vent pictured below. The vent is designed to drop into the stock hood, and does several things:
- an overall 43% drop in under-hood pressure at highway speeds
- a 60% drop in under-hood pressure at 120mph!
- A net front downforce (we had to add wing angle during testing to balance the now-grippier front)
- Increased cooling (less pressure under the hood = more air flowing through the radiator; more air being extracted = more air flowing through the radiator)
The above claims were verified with real-world data, and tested at Willow Springs Intentional Raceway, aka "The Fastest in the West" at speeds up to 130mph under race conditions.
MSRP is $329.99, and are now available at
http://counterspacegarage.com/produc...-frs-gt86.html
